Personally, the mid-February event I'm most excited about is this weekend's library book sale, but hey! Maybe your library isn't having a book sale. Maybe you want to have a romantic dinner for Valentine's Day instead. That's cool.

So last year I recommended pasta with cream sauce, asparagus, and chocolate, all of which are worthy endeavours. This year, though, it's been so completely mild (the high here was 70F yesterday!) that I feel the need for a much springier menu. Voila:

Carrot dill soup
Fennel and citrus salad
Seared whitefish filets
Strawberries if you can find them; poached pears if you can't.

While all of these are delightful, clean, and fresh, none of them are a lot of trouble to cook. In fact, two of them barely require any cooking at all! I just don't see much reason to stress yourself out with fancy food, even on holidays. Go for the good food that you really like to eat. That's all.

Now go make some dinner.